Home Front Command - Emergency alerts & updates

The official Home Front Command app offers real-time alerts, guidelines, and life-saving information tailored to your location and areas of interest. With this app, you can receive crucial updates during emergencies and directly communicate with the Home Front Command. The app is accessible in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English.

What can we know about this app:

The Home Front Command (HFC; Hebrew: פיקוד העורף, Pikud HaOref, also referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Pakar) is an Israel Defense Forces military district command responsible for civil protection.

It was created in February 1992 in response to the lessons of the Gulf War, which was the first war since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in which centers of civilian population faced significant threat. The command is responsible for preparing the civilian population of Israel for conflict or disaster, assisting the population during crisis and contributing to post-crisis reconstruction.

Mission

The mission of the Home Front Command is to protect civilian lives. It prepares the civilian space before a conflict, supports it during a conflict, carries out search and rescue operations and assists in the rapid restoration of the civilian space after a conflict has ended. The Home Front Command publishes regular instructions for civil defense, especially in times of emergency, and operates a telephone emergency center numbered 104.

This district command should not be confused with Unit 669. The Home Front Command's search and rescue unit operates within Israel and is intended to rescue civilians, primarily operating in times of natural disasters, while Unit 669 is the Israeli Air Force's Tactical Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) unit that rescues combatants behind enemy lines.

Fields of responsibility:

As per the Home Front Command's website, its fields responsibilities are:

To draft and publish the rulebook of civil defense.

To prepare and execute plans for civil defense for the entire country and all its territory.

To train, guide, and operate Magen David Adom in Israel (MDA), the firefighting and rescue services, and the other assistant organizations regarding the fulfillment of their duties in the field of civil defense.

To guide the population on the home front as well as all officials in the home front theater during attacks or unique situations on the home front as well as issue appropriate instructions.

To guide local authorities as regards the fulfillment of their duties as regards issues of civil defense.

To coordinate the activities of government ministries, private factories, national infrastructure, and emergency organizations on issues related to civil defense.

To draft policies for civil defense for all areas and in coordination with area commands.

To serve as the competent authority, as defined by law, for the issue of shelter and to serve as an authority, as defined by the Civil Defense Regulations for the matter of dangerous materials.

To determine the way citizens are alerted, including specifying sirens and all-clear signals, their distribution, and their operation through various methods.

To construct a system to detect, identify, and decontaminate areas affected by chemical or biological warfare on the home front and to operate that system during incidents of civil defense.

To store and distribute personal defensive kits to the population in accordance with the regulations in the Civil Defense Regulations (defense kits) 5741-1990 and in accordance with government decisions.

To operate the necessary powers to execute rescue and lifesaving activities as determined by law.